(Kroeck). The company also moved into new markets; in December 2013, Spotify launched in over 20 new markets, making the service available to 55 countries. The company’s growth strategy for the future is to continue rapid expansion into global markets to augment growth in existing markets.
PRODUCT CONCEPT & POSITIONING
Spotify operates as a response to seemingly insurmountable illegal downloading and file
sharing that has taken place on services including Limewire, Napster, and Bittorrent over the last decade. Spotify’s core product is a service In the form of a free or paid subscription to stream DRM music over the Internet through computers and other 12
Table 2: Piracy by Age (“Spotify Artists” )
Wi-Fi-enabled devices.
Spotify serves a B2C market by providing both free and paid content directly to customers through e-commerce. Spotify’s streaming service is positioned by product attribute as a noble alternative to illegal downloading while boasting an expansive music library through it’s mission, “Music for Everyone.” The product concept of the streaming service involves minimizing Online music piracy through widely, easily available content. Offering access to 15 million tracks at no charge to the user, the goal of the organization is to restore value to the music industry otherwise lost by piracy and less monetized methods of music consumption (Kroeck). Table 2 illustrates piracy by age.
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
The organizational culture of the company utilizes a horizontal structure in terms of their
engineering teams, called “Autonomous Squads.” This allows the engineering teams to be autonomous in small groups, yet tightly aligned to achieve larger organizational goals. This demonstrates Spotify’s interest in creativity as part of the organizational culture (Spotify Engineering